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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the first indication that Mrs. Widdup does not listen carefully?
(a) She thinks that Mr. Coulson is telling her about his feelings for another woman.
(b) She does not pay attention to how much medication she is supposed to give Mr. Coulson.
(c) She interrupts Mr. Coulson when he is speaking.
(d) She does not respond to the question that Mr. Coulson asks her.

2. What point is made through the juxtaposition of Mr. Coulson's and Mrs. Widdup's comments about springtime?
(a) They have very different points of view about springtime.
(b) Mrs. Widdup does not return Mr. Coulson's affections.
(c) Mrs. Widdup is a much more emotional person than Mr. Coulson is.
(d) There is a significant gap in their education and social classes.

3. What information does Mrs. Widdup give Mr. Coulson that contradicts what Miss Coulson told him earlier?
(a) She tells him that Miss Coulson has had a very large ice order delivered.
(b) She tells him that his manservant has gone to the post office.
(c) She tells him that Miss Coulson is upstairs sleeping.
(d) She tells him that it is warm outside.

4. What is implied about Miss Coulson when she looks at the flowers "with the eye of a botanist" (334)?
(a) She is very intelligent.
(b) She is curious.
(c) She is logical and unemotional.
(d) She is thinking of cutting them down.

5. What is implied by the number of days for which Miss Coulson orders extra ice?
(a) She thinks that she will need five days to get to know the iceman better.
(b) She knows that after five days Mr. Coulson will be too irritated to talk to Mrs. Widdup at all.
(c) She wants the deliveries to last until Mrs. Widdup leaves for vacation.
(d) She thinks that the flowers will be done blooming in five days.

Short Answer Questions

1. What claim is the narrator making by calling humans "lineal scions of the pansy" (332)?

2. When Mr. Coulson is irritated, he complains that no one in the house does what?

3. Who is the author of "The Marry Month of May"?

4. Why is Mr. Coulson so clumsy on the afternoon after the ice is delivered?

5. How old is Mrs. Widdup?

Short Essay Questions

1. When rhetorical purposes are served by the passage where the narrator says that the scent of flowers was carried in through the window and "fought" with the scent of Mr. Coulson's gout medicine?

2. Explain the technique at work in the sentences "Sparrows wrangled happily everywhere outdoors. Never trust May" (333).

3. When Mr. Coulson comments that the spring weather is "lovely," his daughter replies "That's just it" (334). What does she mean by her reply?

4. What happens when Mrs. Widdup makes an excuse to go into Mr. Coulson's room to speak with him after the ice is delivered?

5. When Miss Coulson says that the supposedly chilly weather is "An instance...of winter lingering in the lap of spring," what double meaning does she have in mind? (335).

6. Explain the significance of the diction "foxy" to describe Mrs. Widdup (333).

7. What is the significance of the sound of the overturned chair after Mr. Coulson confesses his feelings to Mrs. Widdup?

8. When Mr. Coulson finally confesses his feelings to Mrs. Widdup, what drawback to himself does he acknowledge, and what advantage does he say balances this drawback out?

9. What is the rhetorical purpose of the allusions to Puck and Circe?

10. In the passage where Miss Coulson stares out the window, the reader is told "The chirp of the sparrows gave her a pain. She mocked at May" (334). To what earlier passage is this a reference, and what is the significance of the reference?

(see the answer keys)

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